Most. Expensive. Elections. Ever. So did all the money spent on TV ads, mailers, robocalls, live calls and so forth make an impression? Change anyone’s mind? Make people more likely to vote — or less? Here’s a gallery of what voters at polls around Madison told Center staffers today about the role of money in politics.

Most. Expensive. Elections. Ever. So did all the money spent on TV ads, mailers, robocalls, live calls and so forth make an impression? Change anyone’s mind? Make people more likely to vote — or less? Here’s a gallery of what voters at polls around Madison told Center staffers today about the role of money in politics.

When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tapped U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate, the national spotlight aimed at Ryan’s conservative credentials. In this story, we check on Ryan’s report cards from national interest groups and compare his campaign contributions to his voting record.

Thanks to $3.4 million in spending by outside groups and an ongoing ideological divide within the Republican Party, former Gov. Tommy Thompson — once the favorite — may not even make it through Tuesday’s primary.

Rep. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president, may be the face of the Tea Party favorite caucus in Congress. But big business interests have also contributed mightily to the budget chairman’s campaign, according to analyses from the nonpartisan political money trackers at MapLight.

Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. In retrospect, the effort by state Democrats to unseat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election by running Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the same candidate who lost to him in November 2010, might fit this bill.

You don’t have to be a campaign donor or corporate executive to get an audience with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But it doesn’t hurt. The third installment in a three-part series.

Walker’s official calendars from his first 13 months in office chronicle these and scores more hours he spent building credentials with conservatives in Wisconsin and across the nation. The second installment in a three-part series.